3.5 i liked the leads, mc was a good female character, believable. her previous life doesn't play much of a role other than spurring her to visit the capital. she gets caught up in the drama between the saint and the duke, the duke asks her to pretend to be his lover/fiance in order to get the saint off his back. saint is an actress from korea who was involved in a scandal for sleeping her way to the top, she commits suicide via walking into the sea but ended up appearing out of thin air in a lake in the palace and walking on water, however she doesn't possess any holy power so her position as saint isn't confirmed yet, hence she wants to marry the duke to elevate her position in society otherwise she would just be a penniless, powerless woman, tbh her motivations are reasonable, but its frustrating how she is so stupid. like it is clear that the duke is completely uninterested in her, but she continues to use forceful methods to try and marry him like spreading rumours that she was seen leaving his room naked.. then when the duke gets engaged to mc, she doesn't give up and schemes to kill mc. like who is so dumb to pursue a futile course. why doesnt she switch her targets to someone more willing? its so dumb. when the church ask her to perform her duties as a saint like visit the orphanage, she throws a fuss and didnt want to go until they forced her, then she pushes a child away for touching her dress and ran out of the orphanage. like she already said that she had visited orphanages when she was an actress for publicity purposes, why doesnt she see the merit in building her reputation as a saint? shes a talented actress but the author only pulls out her acting skills when it suits them. her maid is also another one, like she's a poor maid in a pub, but absolutely hates rich people like mc and glares at them openly?, then becomes delusional when she meets the duke and falls for his face -.- when the duke smiled at her to be polite, she thought he was in love with her. -.- err i don't know why you would want to create such moronic characters. feels like the author's IQ only goes so far. the only decent villain is the mastermind behind the scenes, a nobleman from the aristocrat faction seeking to weaken the powers of the imperial family, he leaves the dirty work to the saint - wants her to marry the duke so that the imperial family would distance themselves from him (cause the saint represents the church faction), later on asks the saint to poison the duke, then asks her delusional maid to kill her when she leaves the crime scene, and arrange for the maid's death to look like suicide, pretty decent plan and difficult to trace back to him. but the trials are a farce, the evidence that ml presented was kinda flimsy and mainly relied on witness testimonies of the saintess and the nobleman's servant. his father swiftly abandoned him to his death after that? not sure, feel like it would be harder to sentence a noble to death than some flimsy testimonies from non-noble people.
later on the mc lets the ml run around planning a grandiose proposal which in other settings i might get annoyed but in this one i fully understand mc. they got together under false pretences, afterwards cause the duke had weird hang ups about love, couldn't answer that he loved her but said that he liked her and enjoyed being with etc, but mc felt that due to the difference in their social status as well as the duke's popularity with women, this marriage would not be secure like this, she did not want to be a woman who needlessly pursue the affections of a husband who is not interested. so (even tho she knows that the duke likely does love her), she schemes to run away from his house and inform him that she is calling off the engagement as she does not want a loveless marriage. when he comes to his senses and realises he does love her, she still does not accept him back easily and wants him to plan the grandest proposal that will be talked about by the whole country or sth like that. anyway, i think in her position its reasonable, if ur boyfriend told u he didnt love you, isnt it normal for a girlfriend to want to break up, and then when they want to get back together, the girl shouldnt accept him back so easily because like what u think im so easy? love yourself first then only others will love you. also there are political reasons for this as well, cause now mc is seen as a hussy who came and seduced the ml from the saint, her position is not secure and ppl speculate that the ml would prob have a new mistress after marriage, so in order that she is not shunned by high societies, ml should show them that she is important to him.
La Dolce Vita di Adelaide